BT Sport’s audience for English Premier League matches is up around 40% on the year, though the head of BT Sport has warned off the likes of Al Jazeera and Internet giants entering the U.K. sports TV market as there aren’t enough sports rights to bid for. BT Consumer Division CEO John Petter pointed to “good early fixtures,” including a peak audience of 1.25 million for Louis Van Gaal’s first game in charge of ManU, as helping drive up viewing figures. The 40% leap in viewing figures covers the first five live matches BT has shown this season. Petter said, “BT Sport has been a great success. BT Sport has changed very much the way people see BT. It’s changed the way they feel about the brand.”
WINNING YOUNG DEMO: BT Sport is now in around 5 million U.K. households (more than 3 million direct, the rest via Virgin Media), lagging behind Sky, which has around 10.5 million customers. But in some months over the past year BT Sport -- offered free with its broadband service -- has signed up more TV subscribers than Sky. Petter claims BT Sport is pulling in a younger audience than Sky, particularly those watching BT Sport in pubs and clubs, where it has undercut Sky pub subscriptions by nearly 80%. However, Petter hinted that some of BT Sport’s non-live sports coverage -- including a show presented by Clare Balding, which has suffered low ratings, has still to find its feet. Petter said: “I think you shouldn’t judge (non-live sport shows) in the way you judge live sport. You need to look at the accumulative audience for those shows. I think also you have to give these things time.” BT Sport has not disclosed if it will bid for more Premier League matches in future.
WARNING TO RIVALS: However, Petter did warn rival bidders to stay away. He said, “I think it’s difficult for someone completely new to come in to this. They would need to create a channel, presumably. If you put aside the Premier League, lots of the other rights in the other sports are with either BT or Sky. It would be hard for someone to come in completely from scratch.” BT, Sky and the BBC have tied up a big chunk of U.K. TV rights for future live sport events. Petter was speaking at the Nolan Partners Sport Industry Breakfast Club, on a panel which also included Premiership Rugby CEO Mark McCafferty, one of the key figures in establishing the new rugby European Champions Cup. McCafferty said that he had looked to U.S. sports business models, including the NFL, to try and help improve the competiveness of English rugby. He said “competitiveness” would be fundamental to whether rugby would be a hit with TV viewers going forward. McCafferty: “If there is too much certainty about who is going to win then people lose interest. We can’t in this country have a draft system like they have in the States because the college and university level of sports just isn’t strong enough to feed the professional game.” Instead, McCafferty said money was funneled into U.K. rugby academies.
John Reynolds is a writer in London.
